Are you spending too much time on Instagram? The app will soon urge you to take a break.
Instagram is testing a new feature that will prompt people to log off after a select time, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri announced this week. The “Take a Break” feature is opt-in, and will let people select reminders after 10, 20, or 30 minutes of use. Once that time has elapsed, they’ll be prompted to take a break and provided with a few suggestions for what they can do instead, such as listening to a song or tackling something from a to-do list.
Mosseri explains that the feature will start showing up for some users in the coming days, but noted that, “If you don’t see it, you will hopefully get it in a month or two once we get to a place where we’re comfortable enough launching it to everybody on Instagram.”
Mosseri says the move "is part of a broader effort to try and give people more control over their experience of Instagram. Ultimately, you know what’s best for you when it comes to how you use the app, and we want to make sure we provide tools for you to shape Instagram into what works for you. So you’ll see more ideas like this coming in the future too."
Meta VP of global affairs, Nick Clegg, first teased this feature last month, alongside other tools to protect younger kids from harmful content and behaviors on Facebook and Instagram.
The move is a fairly common approach these days; TikTok introduced similar break reminders last year. YouTube has them, too. Apple offers Screen Time settings to limit usage on iPhone and iPad, while Google has Digital Wellbeing on Android. Other apps, including Facebook and Instagram, let you see just how much time you spend on them.